On April 6, 2022 ENSEM Therapeutics Inc. (ENSEM), a Boston-based biotechnology company focusing on high value and difficult-to-drug oncology targets, reported the closing of a series A2 financing (Press release, ENSEM Therapeutics, APR 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234611645]). Incubated by CBC group since 2021, the financing is led by GGV Capital, with participation from Pavilion Capital, Cenova Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc., and CBC Group, bringing the series A total to $67 million.
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"The pharma/biotech industry has been facing a severe bottleneck imposed by a limited number of druggable targets and the slow pace at which new discoveries can be advanced to clinical trials." said Sean Cao, CEO of ENSEM and Managing Director of CBC Group. "The ENSEM team is made up of veteran drug hunters with extensive experience in advancing novel medicines into clinical trials and regulatory approvals. We will combine new tools coupled with AI and machine learning to break these barriers."
"Biomolecules such as proteins and RNAs are in constant motion, with an ensemble of conformations that govern their functions. Traditional approaches have been ineffective in productively capturing these dynamic states due to experimental and computational limitations," said Shengfang Jin, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of ENSEM. "Our team has developed Kinetic EnsembleTM, a novel multi-tiered platform integrating molecular simulation, AI deep learning, and advanced experimental validation by state-of-the-art macromolecular dynamic techniques. We expect many of these programs will reveal non-obvious binding sites as drug targets and create novel classes of small molecule therapeutics."
"ENSEM has made remarkable progress in a short time," said Joshua Wu, Partner of GGV Capital. "The rich industry and technical expertise of this founding team and its unique platform are the core assets of an exciting AI drug discovery company. We believe ENSEM’s differentiated technologies will enable a new generation of drug targets. We are excited to co-lead the series A2 financing and partner with the ENSEM team to accelerate its growth."
Proceeds will be used to further advance the company’s Kinetic EnsembleTM platform and accelerate R&D pipeline.